Oh, I’ve been so ill! Again, a nasty bug has knocked me down-
an unfortunate casualty of my poor candle, burnt at both ends.
I’ve been flattened like a pancake under the steamroller of a
particularly pernicious strain of influenza. Bother!
I won’t go into the gory details, only that the only places
I’ve spent any time recently have been the bed and the
lavatory. So sad. Luckily, I do like saltines and applesauce,
which my diet has consisted mainly of. Also bananas.

Many good things happened before I went under the weather,
however. Including, but not restricted to the following:

★ We saw Where the Wild Things Are, hooray!
It was so wonderful. I loved the attention to detail.
Of course, I bawled. Brimming heart, broken twigs.

★ Taking the pups for lazy afternoon walks after checking out
some garage sales. Strolled by our sweet neighbors abode,
and got in some sweet sunset porch perchin’ with one of the
prettiest families ever. They plied us with treats: banyan tree
seeds, fancy beer, my favorite incense and homemade vegan
chocolate cheesecake! A good reminder to be more sociable, eh?

★ Enjoying a break from disko preparations to attend
darling Mme. Labry’s birthday party, where we sipped
the most amazing drink ever: bison grass vodka and
apple juice daiquiris! Apparently, it is the national drink
of Poland. If so, let’s go! Especially nice in slushie form.
Unfortunately, I had to depart before the stripper we hired
had arrived. It was my special request that he wear a cop uniform!

★ I had a lovely visit with my darling Chad (aka. Mon Petit Fantome)
who was in town to see Hope Sandoval play. What a luminously
gorgeous show. I never had the opportunity to see Mazzy Star
perform, alas – but this more than made up for it. Hope’s voice
is even better in person, and she’s ace on the xylophone.
The projected images overlaying the stage were completely
hypnotizing – lava and sparkles and silent film snippets.

★ I actually have a bit more time now, and am looking forward to
catching up on my reading soon. Not that I don’t have stacks piling up,
but oh – there’s always room for more, hmm? I’d like to get The Wild Things
soon, speaking of… The cover is fantastic, no? Wants.

★ Oh yes, and – I started one of these… Angeliska Parade!
This is what happens when I’m confined to indoors.
A good repository for scraps of glory and oddments.

★ Solitude, such quiet. Peaceful for the first time in awhile.
Silly that I must be so ill in order to achieve it. It feels like
my body’s getting the rest it didn’t the last time I was sickly,
rushing about in New York. Well, okay. Rest, then.

6 comments

Oh dear! Sorry to hear you are unwell; if you are into homeopathic remedies perhaps try some oscillococcinum http://www.oscillo.com/ (I do a part time gig at a healthfood store in addition to my other job…my customers swear by that stuff!) I do think you have to start taking it as soon as symptoms appear though…
Also: try Wellness Formula http://www.sourcenaturals.com/products/GP1345/ – in addition to stuff like echinacea, goldenseal, zinc, etc, it has astragalus, garlic, olive leaf, horehound and propolis, it’s really great stuff.
Also, Hildegard Von Bingen is excellent ambient music for a sick day(s)!

Aren’t those Stieg Larsson books RIVETING? And I believe there is one more to come, as well! Right now I am reading October Dreams: A Halloween Anthology, in addition to some compilations edited by sisters Seon Manley & Gogo Lewis – Dames of Detection, Mistresses of Mystery, Ghostly Gentlewomen, etc. In addition to such great collections of stories, the covers are phenomenal -check out this gallery @Amazon : http://tinyurl.com/ylberc2

Yay on the tumblr blog, I already see you over there stealing my CB I hate perfume!

ahh, yes. we call the drink ‘apple pie’ because for some reason it tastes like the kind of apple pie we traditionally make in Poland. It is a very, very evil drink, because it’s so tasty and doesn’t seem alcohol-ish at all so you drink it and drink it and you don’t even know what hit you;P

- Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark/Jane Fletcher Geniesse
- Isabelle: The Life of Isabelle Eberhardt/Annette Kobak
- Bronx Primitive & A Wider World/Kate Simon
- Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind/Lyall Watson (can’t remember if I recommended this before)
- A Language Older than Words/Derrick Jensen
- Found Meals of the Lost Generation/Suzanne Rodriguez-Hunter
- Aphrodite: A memoir of the Senses/Isabel Allende
- The Last of Old Europe/AJP Taylor (picture book of the old world)
- Reading New York/John Tytell
- Remarkable, Unspeakable New York/Shaun O’Connell

And an idea to mull over: what if you wrote a short guide along the lines of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s The Secret of Life: Commonsense Advice for Uncommon Women? I would love love love to read your version of a guidebook (with illustrations, pretty please)

So presumptuous of me, but your writing makes me happy & I want to have it at hand, tangible-like. (& you had that idea about an advice column a while back…)

These are old Insel books. They’re very sought after these days and quite expensive, but can often be found at antiques markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I only have one in my possession, a lovely little book about Paul Klee.